Politics, not line items, may be complicating negotiations over an historic US defense package to Israel, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

Quiet talks have been under way for months over a new, decade-long aid deal, set to replace an expiring Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) worth $3 billion a year in security assistance to the Jewish state.

But according to a senior Israeli official, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may let the negotiations continue without conclusion so long as there remains a possibility the Obama administration will support a UN Security Council resolution codifying parameters for a two-state solution with the Palestinians.

Netanyahu, the official explained, fears the White House may be seeking to quickly wrap up and sell the MOU as a public display of the president’s commitment to Israel’s security– in order to free him to pursue action at the UN.